Your Right to Know

A Democrat-driven referendum on new congressional-district lines drawn by majority Republicans
could throw Ohio’s 2012 primary election into chaos.

The upheaval led to unusual options being batted around today, including the possibility of
scheduling different state and federal primary elections, forcing a statewide primary to come up
with 16 congressional candidates for each party, or having federal judges draw new districts.

Both branches of the GOP-controlled legislature are being called into session this week to
decide what to do.

Emboldened by an Ohio Supreme Court ruling on Friday night that cleared the way for a
potential referendum on district lines that they consider unfair, Democrats today were working on
three fronts.

They filed more than 2,000 signatures with Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted; returned to
the Supreme Court seeking to restart the clock on a 90-day window to gather the 231,234 signatures
needed for a November 2012 referendum; and sent proposed ballot language to Ohio Attorney General
Mike DeWine for approval.

“These districts must be balanced, fair and competitive throughout the state,” Ohio
Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern said at a news conference at party headquarters.

He said he hopes GOP leaders will consider moving Ohio’s primary election day back from March
to May or June to allow ample time to work out the issues.

The key conflict is that the filing deadline for congressional candidates for the March
primary — currently Dec. 7 — comes before the end of the period that Democrats would have to gather
signatures to challenge the issue as a referendum. That is around Christmas Day, but it could be
extended into January if Democrats are successful in their request.

“There are a lot of options being thrown out there,” said Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, the No.
2 Senate GOP leader. “Right now, it’s uncertain what the final version is going to be.”

Lawmakers might try to give themselves more time by moving the 2012 primary from March to
May, Faber said, adding that the key is making sure the lines are certain for 2012. The Senate is
likely to hold a session on Wednesday or Thursday, and a bill that would move the primary is now
set for committee hearings on those days.

“I don’t think anybody believes it’s satisfactory to just sit back and do nothing,” Faber
said. “I think (Democrats) would like to have a court draw the lines, but I don’t think that’s
proper constitutional process. To the extent that we can find other options, we ought to look to do
that.”

Asked if there was a chance to talk with Democrats, Faber said, “We’d be happy to talk about
an interim map if they have suggestions. But if we’re doing new maps, they could get better or
worse from their perspective.”

When majority GOP lawmakers were forced to draw a map reducing 18 seats to 16, they
eliminated one Democratic incumbent and one Republican, which Republicans said was fair. Democrats,
however, note that the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting said Republicans have a solid
chance to hold 12 of the 16 seats, which Democrats say is not representative of the state.

The nonpartisan group prepared its own map with far more competitive and generally compact
districts.

House Speaker William Batchelder took a more-defiant approach, issuing a statement calling
Redfern’s comments “unfounded and totally without merit. The real story is that the Ohio Democratic
Party’s plan is and continues to be to have federal judges — with a 3-to-1 chance of not being from
Ohio — draw Ohio’s congressional lines, rather than the representatives who were elected by the
people to do so.”

The House has added a session for Friday to consider options.

Last week, Husted threw out an initial batch of signatures submitted by Ohioans for Fair
Elections. He said he rejected the signatures because the redistricting bill contained a $2.75
million appropriation, thus exempting it from referendum.

But today, Husted — his hand forced by the Supreme Court decision — began distributing the
second batch of signatures to counties for verification.

At the same time, the attorney general’s office received the proposed wording for the
referendum petition and has until Oct. 31 to determine whether it is “fair and truthful,”
spokeswoman Lisa Peterson Hackley said.

Dispatch reporters David Eggert and Jim Siegel contributed to this story.